The Journalist and the Awkward Love Story
by Angleterre97
Summary: Matthew Williams is an aspiring Journalist. Anya is in love with Yao. Yao is clueless to this, weary of the terrifying Russian girl. This is their story. (China x Fem!Russia)


Anya often cried herself to sleep. She couldn't help it, with so much guilt weighing so heavily on her mind. It hurt so much to be in love because she always seemed to hurt the one she cared for. Nearly every night, she cried.

Across town, Yao would treat bruises and sore bones before bed, every night. His younger sibling teased him constantly. _I can't believe you let some girl beat you up all the time! _It was always so humiliating, but there was nothing he could do.

I, Matthew Williams, knew all this. Don't ask me how, let's just say at the time I was an aspiring journalist and I had connections. For quite a while I had watched their interactions at school. Yao and Anya fascinated me. I knew Anya was in love with Yao. It was so obvious on her face. But Yao could never see it, I couldn't really blame him. He was always on edge. He was fearful of her, and with every right. The best way to describe Anya was as a girl who loved something so much she tore it apart with her affection. That was the situation. Yao was her object of affection.

And I knew without the right nudges here and there one of two undesirable things would happen. Either things would stay as they were, repetitive and stagnant, or something heart-wrenching and tragic was in store. Don't go getting the wrong idea, I'm not a Dear Abby sort of writer, nor am I the daily horoscope guiding people in their lives and to their loves. I am simply a man who saw that something needed to be done, and that the outcome would certainly be something worth writing down in the end. But it's never the outcome is it, no, it's how they get there.

Anya had met Yao on the playground in 5th grade and had mistaken him for a girl. That's how it had all started, the teasing. Anya loved to tease in that sickly sweet voice of hers. One could never tell what she meant as a poke or a slam. Yao certainly never could. Yao thought she was just undeniably odd.

The day Anya knew she was in love came three years later, in middle-school. She had always liked Yao for his personality. She thought his pride was charming and his hints of whimsy endearing. But one day she looked at him, and I recall this day, for I was in the same room at the same time. She looked at him, and in her eyes, it was like she was seeing him for the first time all over again. Yao had changed over the years. His figure was still feminine, but no one could deny he had aged into one handsome young man. Anya could see it too, and suddenly everything fit together in her heart. She was in love.

That is, of course, where the story takes it's inevitable turn. Perhaps this will make more sense with some background.

Wang Yao was born and raised in China for nine years until his father took a job over seas and he ended up at our international school. He had long black hair that was always, and I do mean always, pulled back, and he was fairly short. As I've already said, his build was slim and girlish. Girls liked him, but he never seemed to have a girlfriend. Ask around and his excuse was always no time, got to study. Straight A's don't often just drop into a person's lap, I suppose.

Anya Braginski was a hardy Russian girl. When she was seven years old her mother died of illness and her father, a drunk beyond all compare, could no longer care for her. She lived with her older brother, and that is how she ended up among us. She was everything that Yao was not, physically. She was tall and built solid. Her hair was long as well, an extremely pale shade of blonde, but she wore it down. If she didn't have such an intimidating aura about her I think she'd have had boys clinging to each arm. But she didn't, she was terrifying.

Everyone was weary of her, Yao included and even myself to some degree. She had a bit of a bad reputation. To be honest, I always felt kind of bad for her. She just didn't know her own strength or how to quite express how she felt. Like I said, tears apart with affection. Sometimes it was a friendly punch to the shoulder. That would leave a bruise. A surprise hug, that would often dislocate something in Yao's back. He would yell at her, he couldn't see the admiration in such acts.

_What did you do that for?! _Yao would gasp out after wiggling away, nursing whatever spot ached. _What did I ever do to you, aru?!_

She would laugh a shaky, small laugh before turning away. Yao never heard her when she would mumble a sorry below her breath, and he certainly never heard her when she would get home and curse herself and wail into her pillow.

Yes, something needed to be done, and as it turned out I would have to be the person to do it.

I started with Anya.

/OOO/

"You should just tell him, you know." I said to her one afternoon at lunch. She was sitting alone.

"Tell him what? What him?" She poked at her food aimlessly.

"Tell Yao how you feel of course." Her eyes shot up at me, horrified.

"How do you...I mean, what are you talking about?"

I smiled. "Oh come on Anya, anyone can tell you really like him."

She shook her head, her eyes downcast. "He hates me. He hates me so much there's no way..."

"That's not true-" I tried to console, but she interjected.

"_Da_, of course it's true! He gets bruises, you know."

I knew.

"A-and they're from me, I do that! I don't mean to but-but he's so fragile..."

If I didn't get this thing rolling she'd be in tears. I pressed on.

"Tell me what you like about him," I started. "Oh but not now, look at the time. Why don't we talk after school ok? I'll walk you home or something. Meet my by the tennis courts alright?"

Sometimes talking fast is the easiest trick. She nodded dumbly, unsure quite how to respond as I got up and quickly hurried off. I threw her a cheerful wave as I walked out the lunchroom doors.

That's when I bumped into Yao.

"Hey! You're just who I was looking for."

"I am, _aru_?"

"Yeah, I need to get an interview from you for the school paper. I hear that you and a couple other tennis player are going to be playing in a special tournament coming up."

"Ah, yes, you mean the-"

"Yeah, that one. Why don't you meet me at the courts after school and we can talk?"

"Um, you don't just want to do it now?"

"No no, it's better to do these sort of things with the appropriate setting, trust me, I'm an expert."

I gave him a small grin and he nodded slowly.

"If you say so..."

"Great! See you then!"

/OOO/

Alright, so it wasn't the most complex or original plan in the book, but at the time it was the best I could come up with. I was not, and still am not, a cupid-wannabe matchmaker. The day dragged on, and after school I waited by the tennis courts behind the main building. I had a folder, a camera, and a notebook. I'd say I looked pretty professional. But of course I wasn't in this just to show off.

Anya arrived first, which was good.

"You wanted to walk me home and talk, _da_?"

"Yeah yeah, I will. Mind if we hand out for just a few minutes? I got pushed into doing a last minute interview for the article on the Tennis team."

"_Nyet_, I don't mind."

Perfect.

"So, why don't you tell me a little about what you see in that Wang Yao."

"Why do you need to know?"

"It's not healthy to keep your feelings bottled up. You can vent to me. I may be a journalist but I'm no sleaze. You can trust me, Canadian's honor."

Oh the bullshit I can muster up when I need to...

She hesitated a moment so I flashed her a reassuring smile. She sighed. Got her.

"He's just so...how to say...charming. He's smart, yet funny. He's got lots of pride but he's not a sore loser.."

I could hear Yao coming from the other side of the courts, he was with his tennis partner, Kiku. I kept her going.

"Is that all? C'mon, there's gotta be more than that."

"Well, he's really sweet and nice and caring. He's always so polite, even when I hurt him. He get's upset and I get that but I don't know why."

"Maybe because you always tease him?"

"But...but isn't that what you do when you like someone? It's fun picking _da? _That isn't right is it..."

She sighed, and she looked like she was about to fall apart on me.

"Anya, hey it's okay, really it's-"

"I'm so tired of crying over him...I just want to be near him and be friends with him but..but all I do is hurt him every time I touch him. I want to hug him, he's so small and cute but he yells at me and I want to tell him how sorry I am that I'm so...me... but he will hate me even more, I just know it. Why can't I be like normal girls?! Why can't I be delicate and loveable-looking like other girls..."

I looked up from her, she had dissolved into sobs, dabbing her eyes and knows with the sleeve of her coat. Yao stood behind her a few feet away. Kiku had long since been on his way, and from the look on the Asian's face he had heard all I had hoped he would. He looked shoked. He looked hurt. Uncomfortable. Saddened. Guilty. Like he wanted to make some well-needed amends. I stepped back as he stepped forward, laying a hand on the girl's shaking shoulder.

"Is...Is all that you just said, is that all true, _aru?"_

Her head shot up, her red-rimmed eyes the size of saucers.

"That's ridiculous Anya, I don't think you need to be like other girl at all, you're already very loveable."

Anya had been right about Yao, of course. He had always been a very, genuinly, nice person, despite his prudish nature. He wasn't the kind to be so easily mislead by a misundertanding. I smiled, watching them talk. I was pretty damn happy with myself.

"You are just saying that. You think I'm a monster! I am a monster. All those bruises, I'm always injuring Yao and I'm so sorry..."

"It's...fine, It's fine, it's not you're fault. You can't help that I'm so...fragile..."

He blushed, how odd, and I thought a bit to myself. I couldn't recall a single time when Yao actually admitted to his fragility. He was reallt trying, how about that?

"And I do not hate you. I've not hated you. I'm just...intimidated by you I think...but that isn't bad."

This was going rather swimmingly.

"Really? Or...or do you just want me to stop crying so you can go away from me and not et more bruises?"

Yao took her hand and smiled. "Stop being so stupid, _aru_. And I hate to see a pretty girl cry."

She blushed now. Oh they were going to make such an adorably awkward couple. I could just feel it. So it wasn't quite love at first sight, nor was it some fairy tale romance in the makings. But it was somethimg, and that was just about everything I needed to see.

"Yao, I just remembered another interview I need to do," I chimmed in. "Totally last minute for the Track article, I almost spaced it. You don't mind if I catch you tomorrow right?"

"Huh? Oh Matthew, no I don't mind."

"Great. Awesome. Anya, I'm so sorry but I've gotta run. Yao, you wouldn't mind walking her home dfor me would you? If you aren't busy."

"I'm not busynow, I'd love to walk miss Anya home."

/OOO/

I never got the credit, but those two did end up together. Those two broken, lost, miscommunicated souls made the cutes, strangest, most admired couple in our schools history. And I got no credit.

But, _C'est la vie_.

I didn't write an article about it until very recently, five years after our graduation now, and got a call from Anya just the other day. I don't know why I decided now to reflect back on t, I just...did it. She had read it in the New York Times and wanted to thank me for it and catch up. We had lots to catch up on

Her and Yao have been married for three years, recently bought a house, and have a two year old daughter. Her name is Maddaline.

"We named her after you." She told me. I was blown away.

"Why?" I asked her.

"Because," She responded, I could hear Yao plaaying with the little girl in the back ground even as we spoke. "Without you there would have never been a her, because there would never have been an us."

And I, Mathew Williams, have never been so proud of anything, in all my life, and probably never will be.

/OOO/

**I'm not entirely happy with how this ended up being. I really liked the way I started it but had no clue how to finish it. Reviews anyways? I'm still working on my RoChu dynamics.**


End file.
